


Son of Gotham

by glowingalienkid



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gotham City - Freeform, Gotham as a Person, Gotham is, Jason Todd discovers his own truth, Kinda? I don't really touch on it a ton in this but he isn't human, Meta Jason, Where Shelia isn't Jason's mom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2019-04-28 01:03:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14438103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glowingalienkid/pseuds/glowingalienkid
Summary: Born in the night to the dark streets and the cries of the innocent. . . he was never going to be anyone but himself.





	Son of Gotham

**Author's Note:**

> So in some of the comics Jason was brought back to life by Superboy Prime punchin the universe or w/e so this follows that where he wakes up in his grave and climbs out of it but in this version that's not how he came back to life.

                These days things were different. Things were softer but still more complex. So many new siblings to deal with and villains to fight. So many other supers operating across the globe.

                Jason was different too.

                He wasn’t what Bruce had made him. Or Talia. Or Willis, for that matter.

                His convictions were his own. His ideas were his own—His mind was his own. The Lazarus pit was unable to control him as it once had, and so was everyone else. He did things his way, now, and he did them very well.

                He was a protector.

                When he went looking for his birth mother, things had gone bad. He had been betrayed but still, right until the end he had been a protector. He did his best to save the woman who had put him in this position right up until he died, and he would have done that whether or not she was his biological mom.

                Of course, he didn’t realize that she wasn’t until years later.

                It had been confusing to everyone, when he came back. The _way_ he came back. Talia acted like she had all the answers but he could tell she was unsure. She had theories, of course, but nothing solid, and Jason hadn’t really bothered to ask. He had been too caught up, then. Too caught up in revenge and—and the madness of the pit, to really worry about it.

                It had taken so long for things to finally calm down and by then, it was so far in the back of his mind that he never really thought about it.

 

* * *

 

 

                It started, as many things did, with Dick. Dumb, caring, guilty Dick who mentioned one night that he was sorry they never noticed that Talia had taken his body.

                Jason hadn’t bothered correcting him. Hadn’t felt it was the right time to make Dick feel worse by explaining that’s not what happened. Explaining waking up in a cold, dark casket and fighting for hours to crawl his way out.

                “Don’t—there wasn’t anything you could have changed. Don’t worry about it,” It had taken awhile but now that he had stopped killing and was back with his family, he knew he had to protect them too. He wasn’t sure how Dick, or Bruce for that matter, would react to knowing he had been wandering around Gotham brain damaged for close to a year before he had even been found. That, potentially, _they_ could have found him.

                That night, finally alone in a safehouse, he had started to do a little research himself. How had he just magically awoken months after his supposed death? How had he not suffocated to death in that coffin? How had he managed nearly a year alone in _Gotham_ of all places while he was too brain damaged to even speak? Even if he ignored how difficult it would have been to find food, water, and shelter in that state he couldn’t forget how dangerous Gotham was.

                If there was one thing he knew it was Gotham’s danger. He was born into it. He grew up in the midst of it. He had seen worse before he became Robin than most superheroes would ever see. Even those able to protect themselves often fell to Gotham’s dangers, so how did he last so long in the state he was in?

                He ended up tracking himself. He wasn’t nearly as good with computers or hacking as Barbara or Tim but following security footage wasn’t that difficult. Still, it took weeks of watching and searching before he established a pattern. Unfortunately, that pattern could only be described as luck.

                Food ending up in front of him, a perfectly good shelter right as he turns a corner, a would-be mugger getting hit by a car as soon as he decides to go after Jason—it’s odd. He doesn’t know what it means and he doesn’t know where to get his answers.

                He ends up going to Crime Alley. He ends up going because he remembers the last thing Shelia said to him.

                _“I’m sorry I lied.”_

                It wasn’t until now that he got the feeling that her lie wasn’t about the Joker. No, Shelia Haywood was never his mother. She was a woman that recognized the adopted son of Bruce Wayne and thought she could benefit from it. She was not his reason for being on earth.

                And hey, if he had met her in Gotham he probably would have been fine. The city would protect him the way it always had. The way it had when he was catatonic, and the way he now realized it had all his life. He had always wondered how he had always been able to find food as a kid. Always able to stay in his shit-hole apartment, despite never remembering Catherine paying rent. He remembers gangsters that he never should have gotten away from. He remembers being only child on his block that had never been to the hospital.

                He remembers the way the city led him to Batman. Led him to a place he never should have been at just the right time.

                And for some reason, that’s exactly where he decided to go. Where he knew he _had_ to go. 

 

* * *

 

 

                There was a woman there. One with long, dark hair and a simple white dress, dirty with grime at the bottom yet still beautiful. She seemed almost uncomfortable in her own skin. Like she wasn’t used to it.

The street was otherwise quiet, not another person in sight. Not necessarily odd for this part of Gotham, but it felt deliberate.

                They met eyes and he realized, only half-surprised, that he recognized them. He had looked at himself enough in the mirror to recognize his own eyes.

                “Who are you?” He wasn’t sure why that was his first question, or why he even knew to ask it, but nothing else felt right at that moment.

                “I am your mother,” It was simple, but practiced. She had been expecting him. She had been waiting here, just for him. She had been waiting for him for quite some time, actually.

                “Who—who am I?” Jason wasn’t stupid. People didn’t just come back to life—not people like him. Not humans like he was supposed to be.

                “You,” She murmured, her voice familiar in a way that Crime Alley was familiar. The way that he could sit on top of a building and close his eyes and tell you what every sound in Gotham was. What it meant, “You are my son. The Son of Gotham. Protector of those who need it. You are not—what I expected. You have done so much more than I ever would have asked of you. I am only sorry I could not have done more.”

                “What does that mean?” His voice cracked, but he ignored it. The woman in front of him didn’t care and there was no one else to hear it.

                “It means that I am proud of you. Of what you have become. I never meant to put you in the position that I did, but I do not regret creating you. I, Jason, am this city. I did my best to raise you, even though I couldn’t be there, but there is a darkness to me that I wish you did not have to experience. I am sorry about that,” He realized as she spoke how she was flickering. How this form wasn’t real, it was just a way to talk to him.

                “H-How?” He was surprised he was still able to talk. Maybe this was a dream.

                “The past is not important, my dear. Only the present,” And god if he wasn’t so shaken up right now he would have laughed. Why did the people in his life always have to be so cryptic?

                “Did—did I die because I left Gotham? Because I left you?” Did he come back because he was buried here? Is that how she revived him?

                “You may travel anywhere you wish, Jason, but this will always be home. This city is in your blood, more than you have ever realized. You are the heir of Gotham, but that does not mean that Gotham constrains you. Death is not permanent for you. Not a human death, at least,” And that was going to be something he’d have to deal with later but the way she said it made it sound so easy.

                “But if I hadn’t been dipped in the Lazarus—”

                “Your mind would have healed. It just would have taken much longer,” And for some reason he believed her. He believed all of this.

                “So. . . what do I do now?” He knew he didn’t have much time left as he asked the question. He could already see completely through her. She would be leaving soon.

                “You continue along your own path, Jason Todd,” She whispered as she began to fade completely, “You are not mine to control. You are not anyone’s to control. You are the Son of Gotham but more importantly you are its Protector. And that, my dear, you have done completely on your own.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if this is hard to follow I wrote it in 40 minutes and didn't reread it at all before posting bc I am scared that I won't post it if I read it. 
> 
> Basically as a summary if this was hard to understand: Jason is the son of Gotham City itself and the city couldn't exactly take care of him because he has a physical form and the city generally doesn't but she did her best to protect him whenever she could. He came back to life because although he has a physical form, he isn't fully human.
> 
> I also wanted to stress that the city didn't have Jason to make him become a protector, and that's not why it sent him to Batman or anything. She's basically just a good mom that wants what's best for him and wants him to be his own person and she knew he needed to be with Batman. 
> 
> If anyone else ever wants to write about this kinda thing, hmu because I'd love to talk theories or if someone wants to co-write a whole series that would be really cool I have tons of ideas but I just have such a hard time getting them into words. Also, if any of you know of any other stories where Jason is the son of Gotham I would super love to read them and please put them in the comments or something because I vaguely feel like I got this idea from something I read 4 years ago but also I was unable to find it.


End file.
